


A Meeting in the Clouds

by Shiredancer (SallyJ)



Category: The Sentinel (TV), 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Challenge Response, Gen, Sentinel Senses, Sentinel/Guide, TS Concrit - Freeform, preslash, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23056681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SallyJ/pseuds/Shiredancer
Summary: A very different Jim and Blair meet for the first time in a realm of magic far away and long ago. (Written for the Chatzy Concrit #13 prompt “AU Meeting”.)
Relationships: Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19
Collections: TSCC 13: AU Meeting





	A Meeting in the Clouds

**Author's Note:**

> Crossover with _The Untamed_ , my latest obsession. Just a little test of my imagination...
> 
> For those Sentinel fans unfamiliar with _The Untamed_ , it's a Chinese drama set in an ancient time of warring clans and magic.
> 
> For Untamed fans unfamiliar with _The Sentinel_ , it's a cop show set in the 90s about a detective with heightened senses and the anthropology student who becomes his guide, and it's the origin of all Sentinel/Guide tropes.
> 
> This was written when I first started watching _The Untamed_ and hadn't even finished the show yet -- early days!

James, adopted disciple of the Lan Clan of Gusu, stepped onto the veranda and inhaled deeply of the cold air. With his left hand on his sword and his right hand clenched at his back in the formal stance he’d learned from boyhood, he carefully scanned the compound of Cloud Recesses. The beauty of its graceful pavilions registered briefly, but his focus was on seeking anything that his five enhanced senses might perceive as potentially troublesome.

Trouble, he knew, couldn’t be avoided this day. His life was one of order, discipline, and obedience to the over 3000 rules of conduct of the Lan Clan, and trouble in any form… irked him. But with disciples from all the main clans arriving for the famed lectures of the Grand Master, and especially that notoriously troublesome Young Master Wei of Jiang Clan… well, best to be prepared for anything. He’d heard rumors, too, of a new addition to Jiang Clan – a young foreigner from a distant land, who was reputed to be as thick as thieves with Wei Wuxian.

Until now, James was the only foreigner in the realm, rescued 22 years ago from a shipwreck that claimed all others. He had known his name, but remembered nothing else – except that his senses had bothered him all his young life of six years. Here they were regarded as gifts, and he was trained to use them as part of his capability skills.

He could make out the first disciples climbing the hill. They would continue to arrive over the next three days, until the opening ceremony. With a sigh, James took a side path to avoid them. He had a particular glade in mind for quiet contemplation before the onslaught of voices, smells, and colors.

He arrived at the small meadow overlooking the river, but he wasn’t alone. A cloaked and hooded figure perched among the rocks, holding one of the rabbits who frolicked in the grass. James let a tiny frown mar his countenance; then, composing himself, he approached the stranger.

“Who comes to the private spaces of Cloud Recesses unbidden?”

The figure turned at his challenge, and as the hood fell back, James drew in a breath of surprise. This was no clan member with smooth, straight black hair. This young man – for young man it was – had hair that caught the light in glints of gold, amber, and copper, and fell to his shoulders in curls and waves such as were not known in this land. Their eyes met, and James felt another shock. The stranger had eyes as blue as lapis lazuli, deep and dark. His own eyes were the color of Lan Clan’s pale blue silk and were the wonder of the realm. This could only be the new foreigner, and despite his outward calm, James was rocked to his foundation.

The young man stood and made the proper bow, which James returned. “I am Blair,” were his first words, and James marveled at the sound of the strange name. “You must be James, of course – sorry, I mean Master James. I have heard so much about you from Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and Yanli at the Lotus Pier!”

James nodded gravely. “I have heard very little of you, Young Master Blair of Jiang Clan. Shall we exchange stories over tea in the Library Pavilion? I sense” – and he smiled privately to himself at the use of the word – “that we share a destiny, as the only two strangers in this land.”

Blair grinned broadly. “Just let me say good-bye to the rabbits – I’ll get to see them again, won’t I? And wait, where’s my flute – ah, here we go. Lead on and show me all the wonders of Cloud Recesses, please! Especially the library. Are there really three thousand rules of conduct here? How can you stand that? Surely we visitors aren’t expected to abide by them all… ?”

With Blair chattering away, they stepped forth, and James thought, “Trouble – yes. This one will bring much trouble, to his clan and to himself as well. I foresee many transcriptions of the complete list of rules in his future.”


End file.
